Single pass multi-colored screen printing

ABSTRACT

A flat screen printer squeegee roll well is provided with plural colors of ink. The ink is poured in the well in a series of distinct layers. The layers are then disturbed to generate a marbleized effect in the layers of ink. Agitation of the ink should not be sufficient to blend the ink colors together. The squeegee rolls then move across the screen and deposit the ink on the substrate below the screen. The ink is distributed with a multi-colored marbleized effect. Consequently, the substrate is printed with a plurality of colors in one pass.

tlnited tts ntet n91 Phelan, ,Hr.

[111 1 Feb. 111, 1975 1 SINGLE PASS MULTI-COLORED SCREEN PRllNTlNG [75] Inventor; Lawrence W. Phelan, .1r., Lancaster,

[73] Assignee: Armstrong Cork Company,

Lancaster, Pa.

[22] Filed: Aug. 14, 1970 [2]] Appl. No.: 63,840

[52] U.S. C1. 101/129, 117/39 [51] Int. Cl 841m 1/12 [58] Field of Search 101/ll5,211, 129; 8/16; 117/39, 8.5

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,341,396 9/1967 Iverson 117/39 X 3,520,757 7/1970 Heaney et a1 1l7/8.5 X

OTHER PUBLICATIONS Silk Screen Printing Production, Biegeleisen, Dover Publications, 1963, page 79, TT2J73/K66.

Primary Examiner-Robert E. Bagwill Assistant ExaminerE. H. Eickholt [57.] ABSTRACT A flat screen printer squeegee roll well is provided with plural colors of ink. The ink is poured in the well in a series of distinct layers. The layers are then disturbed to generate a marbleized effect in the layers of ink. Agitation of the ink should not be sufficient to blend the ink colors together. The squeegee rolls then move across the screen and deposit the ink on the substrate below the screen. The ink is distributed with a multi-colored marbleized effect. Consequently, the substrate is printed with a plurality of colors in one pass.

1 Claim, 3 Drawing Figures PAIENIED EB 1 3.865.032

INVENTOR J ATTORNEY LAWRENCE W. PHELAN, JR.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The invention is directed to a printing technique and, more particularly, to a technique for printing a plurality of colors at one time.

2. Description of the Prior Art U.S. Pat. No. 3,294,018 discloses apparatus for simultaneously printing a plurality of images of different inks by a single plate. The apparatus of the patent uses separate sources of ink and does not disclose the marbleized effect set forth herein. U.S. Pats. Nos. 3,398,680 and 2,928,340 disclose the printing of a number of colors by the use of a plurality of separate ink printing units.

It is the object of the technique herein to provide for the utilization of a single printer which is capable of providing a random marbleized effect due to the manner in which the ink is established in the ink reservoir.

SUMMARY or THE INVENTION In a conventional flat screen printer the ink is forced through the openings of the screen onto a substrate by the use of dual a squeegee structure. A reservoir for the ink is maintained between the dual roll structure. Ink is supplied to the reservoir and as the squeegee moves across the screen the ink is moved out of the reservoir by one of the squeegees and moved onto the screen ahead of the squeegee structure. The squeegee then forces the ink through the hole structure of the screen. The ink is placed in the reservoir as a single color. Herein, a plurality of layers of differently colored ink are placed in the reservoir. The ink is then disturbed in its layer structure by moving an instrument with an up and down motion through the layers of the ink. This yields a marbleized effect to the ink layers. As the squeegee now moves across the screen the ink is drawn out of the reservoir with this marbleized effect and deposited on the substrate with a marbleized effect. There will be at least as many colors printed as there are layers of ink provided. In addition, there will be a slight blending of inks in the boundary area between two ink colors and this may yield further colors ofink as the result of the blending of two basic colors.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a side view of a conventional screen printer with the ink in the reservoir in layers;

FIG. I] is a side view of the structure of FIG. 1 wherein the ink layers have been disturbed to provide a marbleized effect;

FIG. III is a plan view of a pattern which has been printed by the apparatus of FIG. I and II.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A conventional flat screen printer utilizes a screen 2 in which a pattern is provided through the use of plurality of holes 4. The holes are arranged in the pattern that it is desired to print and the ink passes through the hole structure to a substrate 6 to print the desired pattern on the substrate. The ink to be printed on the substrate is distributed across the top surface of the screen and forced through the hole structure by use of a squeegee assembly 8 which is composed of two rolls I0 and 12.

Between the two rolls l0 and 12 there is an area 141 which forms the ink reservoir. The ink to be printed is deposited in the reservoir and as the dual squeegee structure moves from the left to the right of FIG. I, the ink is drawn around the roll 10 in a clockwise direction and deposited ahead of the dual squeegee structure. The squeegees then force the ink down through the hole structure 4.

The improvement over the prior art involves the placing of the ink in the reservoir 14 in a plurality of layers 16, 18 and 20. Each layer of ink will be of a different color and preferably the center layer is of a light color since this gives better blending results. It is possible that two layers could be utilized or more than three layers could be utilized, but the best results are secured with a three layer structure. Referring to FIG. II, there is shown the marbleized ink. After the ink has been placed in the reservoir a flat stick or similar type instrument is moved up and down through the layers of ink in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the layers. This agitation of the plural layers of ink causes a movement of the ink of one layer through one or two of the other layers. The agitation is not sufficient to cause a blending of the ink to approach a single color. The agitation is only that which is necessary to provide a marbleized effect in the ink layers. This effect is shown in FIG. II. When the squeegee roll structure is moved in the direction of arrow 22 the ink is drawn from the ink reservoir 14 and moves around the roll 10 as a marbleized layer of ink 24.- The ink moves in a clockwise direction around the roller 10 and is deposited on the screen 2 just ahead of the squeegee roller structure. The squeegee structure pushes the ink ahead of the squeegee rollers and forces ink down through the holes in the screen to print a substrate 6 with the desired pattern.

FIG. III shows a flower type pattern which was printed by the apparatus of FIG. lll. Area 26 is printed by the color of one layer of ink while area 28 is printed by a color of a second layer of ink and area 30 is printed by the color of a third layer of ink. In the transition area 32 between color area 26 and 30 there will probably be some minor blending of the ink to produce a fourth color. There will at least be a gradual fade-out of color 26 towards color 30.

What is claimed is:

1. In a method of printing a multi-colored pattern on a substrate by the single pass of a silk screen printer, the steps of: depositing a plurality of colors of ink in the silk screen printer reservoir, placing the plurality of colors of ink in a distinct layer structure with one layer above another, slightly agitating the layers of ink to provide a marbleized blending of the layers of ink, then moving the ink from said reservoir to the screen of the printer by the use of a roll structure, said roll structure being positioned at the side of the reservoir and applying the ink onto a substrate to provide for the printing thereon of a pattern having a plurality of colors, with only a single pass of the substrate relative to the screen printer. 

1. In a method of printing a multi-colored pattern on a substrate by the single pass of a silk screen printer, the steps of: depositing a plurality of colors of ink in the silk screen printer reservoir, placing the plurality of colors of ink in a distinct layer structure with one layer above another, slightly agitating the layers of ink to provide a marbleized blending of the layers of ink, then moving the ink from said reservoir to the screen of the printer by the use of a roll structure, said roll structure being positioned at the side of the reservoir and applying the ink onto a substrate to provide for the printing thereon of a pattern having a plurality of colors, with only a single pass of the substrate relative to the screen printer. 